E-mail Service Feature Comparison

This chart is designed to show the various features available on Virginia Tech's e-mail services.  The Exchange service provides e-mail, calendaring, and other groupware options for faculty and staff.  The VT Mail service provides basic e-mail management for all affiliates including students.

	Exchange Service	VT Mail Service
Availability	Faculty/Staff	Faculty/Staff/Students
Secure Logon
Daily Off-Site Backup
Virus Scanning
Spam Filtering	1	1
MAPI
IMAP	2	8
POP	2	3
Group Calendar	Special Clients4
Global Address List	Special Clients4,5
Tasks/Notes/Contacts	Special Clients4
Public Folders
VT Mobile Messaging	6
Mailbox Size	50 MB	TBD9
Storage Duration	Unlimited	32 days7
Max Message Size	Unlimited (5MB externally)	5 MB
Web Access	WebOutlook	WebMail

¹The VT Mail servers tag all incoming e-mail that they suspect to be unsolicited messages (also known as spam) with a special header string beginning with "X-Junkmail" or "X-JunkMail". For more information and links to configuration instructions, see Unwanted E-mail at Virginia Tech (http://answers.vt.edu/kb/entry/1064/.

²POP or IMAP is required for non-Outlook or WebOutlook access to Exchange.

³ POP is required for non-Webmail access to the VT Mail server. To configure your e-mail client to access your VT Mail account using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), see the VT Mail page (http://www.computing.vt.edu/email_and_calendaring/vt_mail/index.html).

⁴Outlook (using MAPI), Evolution in Unix, and WebOutlook (https://weboutlook.vt.edu/) all offer these extended features.

⁵While the proprietary MAPI protocol (used by Outlook) gives the most comprehensive view of the Global Address List (GAL), clients that can use LDAP queries to perform directory lookups can also benefit from using the GAL.

⁶ As of July 1, 2005, GoodLink is the supported service. For details, see VT Mobile Messaging (http://www.computing.vt.edu/email_and_calendaring/exchange/mobile_messaging/index.html).

⁷Typically, the VT Mail server stores messages for up to 32 days and then deletes them. However, due to continuing growth in mail left on the server, the number of days is modified as needed. For more information, see Mail Storage and Retention.

⁸IMAP is currently available, but messages will still be deleted from the server within 32 days. For more information, see Status of IMAP at Virginia Tech.

⁹The mailbox size for VT Mail will be established when the service moves to a quota system from the current expiration system.